


Merry Kissmas

by nanasalt



Category: Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: But I did lose the outline and with it my zest for life, Christmas Fluff, F/M, I had a whole outline for this and sometimes I REALLY consider writing it, Meet-Cute, So right now it's a standalone one-shot, mistletoe kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21923704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanasalt/pseuds/nanasalt
Summary: Running away from nosy neighbors would be easier if the elevator in Gleb's building wasn't so prone to breaking down, and if someone hadn't hung mistletoe in it. Inspired by the Christmas rom-com of the same name, originally posted on tumblr for Christmas 2018.
Relationships: Gleb Vaganov/Anya | Anastasia Romanov
Comments: 6
Kudos: 47





	Merry Kissmas

The elevator in Gleb Vaganov’s building was haunted.

The prospect would have been more upsetting if it hadn’t been mostly haunted by inconsistent performance and Lily Malevsky-Malevich’s insistence that, variously, he didn’t eat enough, needed to bring a girl home every once in a while, and worked too hard. She was tenacious, and Gleb would’ve admired that if not for the last time, when she’d pointed to the mistletoe in the elevator and said threateningly that either he found himself something to be busy with on Christmas or she would find him something.

He hadn’t wanted to find out what Lily Malevsky-Malevich considered ‘busy’, especially when she’d laid a hand on his arm and given the mistletoe another meaningful look. He had managed to hit the door open button enough times to escape five floors too early and walk to his floor. Gleb had since developed the very reasonable defensive position of taking the stairs whenever his neighbor appeared in the apartment lobby.

The coast was seemingly clear; his shift had been long. Maybe that's why he got onto the elevator before he noticed notice Lily hanging up one of the antique payphones - who used those? who even used those? why did they exist in the lobby, of all places? - before turning to the elevator with a smile and a fresh round of interrogation or worse.

Gleb hit the elevator door close button and only felt a little bad about it.

The front doors of the building burst open and a young woman tumbled in, snow-swept and blushing. Gleb had just enough time to notice blonde hair and sharp features and that she was pretty before she threw herself into the elevator, managed to shout “mistletoe!” in the same moment he tried to politely ask if she was going up, and then suddenly Gleb was being kissed - not unpleasantly - by a stranger.

The first instinct to shove her off was negated by the way she held herself, cautious and ready for it, and the second instinct to kiss her back won out without too much struggle. He could sense more than feel Lily’s disbelieving stare, could hear the lobby door open in a swirl of snow as the mysterious blonde fumbled for the elevator buttons, and Gleb managed to hit one without looking - the right one, he could only hope perhaps - as she pressed him back a step, out of view of the window. _Clever_ , he wanted to say, or _thank you_ , or even _what’s your name?_ but she slid a hand up into his hair and Gleb kept himself from melting like the snow she brushed free through nothing but force of will. His arm had come to rest around her waist and the tension coiled in her spine had him stroking a hand over the small of her back as one or both of them made a soft noise of contentment, the cold of the winter weather finally leaving their bones. It was a stupidly irrational instinct to sink into the warmth and softness of the moment but Gleb couldn’t have pulled away even if her hand wasn’t holding him to her, even if he’d _wanted_ to.

It didn’t feel like kissing a stranger.

The mysterious blonde pulled a half step back, her blush from the cold replaced by another, more intriguing one, and Gleb felt his breathing stop. She was beautiful, distractingly so, with sharp features and long lashes, blonde hair that framed a faint spill of freckles and lips that looked dried by the cold weather and still thoroughly kissed, and he felt a stupid, stupid instinct to chase her, kiss her again and again until the winter chill was a vague memory and not even bother blaming the mistletoe.

The mistletoe.

The only reason she'd kissed him.

He'd almost forgotten.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, and she wrenched her gaze from his lips to his eyes. “My neighbor might stop threatening to find me a date, now.”

She laughed and tucked her hair behind an ear with a nervous grin.

“No, no, thank you, I - I needed the distraction to get away,” she managed, and Gleb raised an eyebrow.

“You’re running?” It wasn’t disappointment, and he was happy to have helped, and he certainly didn’t want to take advantage, but. “If you need help, I’d be happy to -” He cleared his throat and tried to smile politely. “I’m -- that is, if you needed help, you could have asked. It's my job.”

Her eyes widened and she took a step back, wringing her hands and biting her lip. His hands had lingered a half moment too long of their own accord, caught in the rough fabric of her coat and the warmth he could almost imagine sleeping from it, and Gleb felt the cold of the poorly-insulated elevator jealously chasing away the memory of her hands on him.

“It’s nothing,” she decided at last, tipping her head up as if to dare him to contradict her. “Maybe I have a nosy neighbor of my own.”

Gleb nodded, and glanced desperately at the elevator buttons. It had risen three floors and stalled, not quite far enough to have the door open, and he hadn’t noticed because her ruse had been too distracting. Of course.

“The elevator,” he started lamely, and she frowned. He gestured to the buttons, wet his lips and tried to smile. “It does this, sometimes, it’s a very old building -“

“Oh,” she said neutrally, and glanced at the panel, glanced back up at him from under her lashes to try and read him. “Is it fixable?”

Idiot, idiot boy, Gleb could almost hear in a voice that sounded oddly like his father's. He had been raised better than this.

“Yes, of course, I’ll just -“ He stumbled back a step and slammed the heel of his hand into the console, which made her jump with a quiet noise of shock as the lights of the panel go out. After a moment, Gleb’s repeated pressing of the ‘8’ was rewarded with a ring of light, and he tried to ignore the burning of his cheeks and ears. “Sorry, it’s - are you going to be okay?”

“Okay?” She stared up at him in befuddlement. “Why would I not — ?”

“You seemed,” he started, as the elevator shuddered into life again, and then changed his mind halfway through the sentence. “If you’d like to wait out your ‘nosy neighbor’, I have - that is to say, you could visit. Hide. Whichever. I could make tea.”

She stared up at him in complete befuddlement. The elevator shuddered again. Gleb wondered if being trapped in an elevator with the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen was really how he was supposed to die, and if he mattered if it was.

“I can’t,” she decided finally, and leaned past him to hit the lobby button again. Gleb caught the scent of rose shampoo. “I’m late for work already.”

“Oh,” he managed, as the elevator finally stopped on the eighth floor. She chewed on her bottom lip, swayed an inch closer, and for a moment he was seized by the insane desire to kiss her goodbye. They were strangers, but it hadn’t _felt_ like a stranger’s kiss; it had felt like two puzzle pieces slotting together and finally making sense, like something he would want to repeat indefinitely.

“It’s a very nice offer,” she said finally, as he stepped out of the elevator and turned to face her. She grinned. “Thank you -- ?”

Gleb realized, in rapid succession, that he hadn’t gotten her name, hadn’t given her _his_ name, and had no way of finding her.

“I’m here,” he managed to throw out as the elevator slid shut, “every day!”

Then she was gone, and Gleb could have kicked himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time I had the idea of writing a full-length fic based on this, and then I lost my notes. Alas. Maybe next year I'll have my life together enough to rewrite them; in the meantime, let's all have some fluff.
> 
> As ever, follow my tumblr for more updates and writing snippets at [vampyrekatwrites](http://vampyrekatwrites.tumblr.com/). If you want to see my more general fandom side, my Anastasia blog is at [nanasalt](http://nanasalt.tumblr.com/). Feel free to PM me or send asks! The interaction is what keeps me writing.


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